Part 2: should I pull the trigger on one of these? I'm thinking of building a rig in the September or Oct time-frame. On the one hand, I could sit on a PSU for a few months, and it wouldn't go bad, and this sounds like a great deal. On the other hand, $60 more isn't too much when spread over 6 months of waiting (pack my lunch a few more times each week and I've more than made up for it), which would net me slightly newer build designs that are supposedly more efficient ?

Also, I may not need 650/660W. My estimate is that my build will end up in the 490 - 510 range, in which case the x560 should be sufficient, yes?

Power supply is one of those components that you are not going to physically notice a huge difference when upgrading between OK and great, that being said the difference between great and really great is even less noticeable. Going for the x660 over the reduced price x650, and spending significantly more money, would be silly. Instead put that money to something more tangible like an SSD.

Last edited by BloodSoul on Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The Seasonic X series has always been more expensive than Corsair's offerings at the same price, even though Corsair also gets its PSUs from Seasonic and they share pretty much the same design. So I wouldn't buy an X series at all.

the x series are quieter than the corsairs. i say this from personal experience with both a corsair 750w psu and a seasonic x750 psu. the corsair was always audible, the seasonic was never ever audible. the final kicker is I've never had to clean out the dust trap on the psu intake on my case because my seasonic psu fan never spins...

The Seasonic X series has always been more expensive than Corsair's offerings at the same price, even though Corsair also gets its PSUs from Seasonic and they share pretty much the same design. So I wouldn't buy an X series at all.

Well then, I pulled the trigger, based on price. $109 for a SeaSonic x650, $119 for what I assume was corsair's comparable 650w PSU, and that one lacked the free shipping and the 80+ Gold certification.